Tag: 2014 Sochi Olympics

What do postmodern exhibitionists, Islamic holy warriors and marauding ultra-nationalists share in common? Seemingly little, aside from the fact that these bizarre bedfellows are the star assets of US policy in Eurasia. And despite their use of very different tactics, they all are tasked with the same mission: to undermine Russia, […]

There is a Russian proverb very similar to “Pride Goeth Before a Fall.” Russians are not easily offended, as opposed to, for example, my Israeli compatriots, who are hypervigilant to conspiracies and anti-Semitism. Russians just aren’t like that, and even the manufactured word “Russophobia” never really caught on, except within […]

The opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games will take place in Sochi on Friday. Regrettably, as soon as this venue was selected by the Olympic Committee in July 2007 in Guatemala, the Western media unleashed a vicious, often hypocritical, and extremely biased campaign against Sochi and Russia in general. It has been dominated by stories about cost overruns and rampant corruption, […]

The Western press is once again brimming with a fresh wave of anti-Sochi slander. The new round is dedicated to the supposedly “skyrocketing” costs of the games, or the “bacchanalia of waste and corruption” as Steven Lee Myers of the New York Times so poetically expresses it. Fresh ammunition was […]

I was a panelist on the January 30, US-Russia.org discussion, headed under the title of: “Why is the West Waging a Campaign Against the Sochi Winter Olympics?” Among other things, the subtitle of my below contribution to that panel (and its contents), emphasize the lack of a critical follow-up on the subject at […]

As the Olympic torch draws closer to Sochi, an international media campaign is in full swing, attempting to question Russia’s ability to provide a safe and tolerant environment for the athletes and guests of the Winter Olympics. Setting aside the issue of whether the complaints about Russia’s human rights record […]

Hosting the Olympics — summer or winter is a big deal. They give the host city and nation a chance to strut and preen before a worldwide audience of tens of millions while attracting tens of thousands of visitors. That’s why cities vie for the honor in a fierce competition […]

There is nothing more vague and more promising in politics than the fight against corruption. Modern extravaganzas, such as Olympic Games or soccer World Cups, are not only great shows but also great irritants for concerned citizens who always believe they could find a better use for the money spent […]

The South Caucasus has historically held a special place in the geopolitics of the leading European powers. For Russia, it was a gateway to the south, to the Black Sea and Mediterranean region and beyond—to the Middle East. For the major continental powers and the Ottoman Empire it was a […]